Snow plow blades are typically mounted on the front of motor vehicles, such as trucks and jeeps in cold weather climates for conducting snow plowing operations. One problem that arises when using a snow plow blade mounted on the front of a vehicle is that when the plow blade is in a non-plowing or up position, the snow plow blade is situated such that it is in front of the vehicle, and in particular, in front of the radiator, and blocks the flow of air to the vehicle's radiator. As a result, the amount of air passing over the radiator is greatly reduced, which results in over heating of the vehicle.
There are prior art air flow deflectors that direct the flow of air over top of the snow plow blade onto the vehicle radiator. One such air flow deflector is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,544,434 to Calvachio, Jr. Another type of arrangement is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,587,750 to Larson. The devices as shown in the Calvachio and Larson patents basically constitutes pivotable fins mounted on top of the blade. The entire air scoop arrangement must be pivoted to direct the flow of air to the vehicle's radiator.
Yet, another type of wind deflector plate is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,896,915 to Morandi et al. The Morandi patent discloses a different type of arrangement having a wind deflector mounted to a plow pump and having a laterally movable extension plate movable between the air scoop assembly and the vehicle to direct the flow of air to the vehicle radiator.